St Denis

St Denis, a town in the French department of Seine, 4 miles N. of Paris, is situated within the line of forts forming the outer defences of the city, and was itself formerly fortified. It has manufactures of printed calicoes, flour, chemicals, machinery, white-lead, and other commodities. A famous sheep and parchment fair has been held here since 1552. The town is supposed to date from the foundation of a chapel raised above the tomb of St Denis (q.v.). This chapel was replaced in the 7th century by an abbey, built by Dagobert I., who was buried in its church, which thereafter became the mansoleum of the kings of France. The existing abbey church was begun by Abbot Suger in 1137, and skillfully restored by Viollet-le-Duc from 1848 onwards, though it suffered again in the bombardment of the town by the Germans in 1871. Monuments were erected above each of the royal tombs by St Louis, and the series was continued in after ages. The most magnificent of these memorials are the tombs of Louis XII. and his queen, Anne of Brittany, of Francis I. and Claude, and of Henry II. and Catharine de' Medici. The abbey was plundered by the English in 1430. Napoleon converted it into a school for the daughters of officers of the legion of honour. During the Revolution, in 1793, the royal tombs were sacrilegiously rifled and demolished, and the bodies cast indiscriminately into ditches prepared for them. Pop. (1872) 31,850; (1886) 47,980. See D'Ayzac Histoire de l'Abbaye de Saint-Denis (1861).